Airport-tower trepidations

In response to “Airport towers at Brown Field, Ramona on list to close” (March 23): Whatever happened to the sense of priority in our government (assuming that they ever had one)? It’s been reported that the control tower at Ramona Airport costs half a million a year to operate but they don’t have the money!

We have $1.5 million to spend on a study on why lesbians are fat and another $2.7 million on why lesbians drink. That amount would keep the tower open for eight years. Throw in a few other stupid, wasteful, boondoggles, like running shrimp on treadmills, robot rats to study rattlesnakes and all the other silly projects the government wastes our taxes on and all 214 towers they plan to close could remain open.

While I have only been a San Diego pilot for 23 years, for the majority of them Ramona Airport was a non-towered field routinely used safely by primary-flight students as well as other general aviation and emergency aircraft. Steve Breen’s cartoon (March 24) suggesting that chaos will ensue because of a cut to the FAA budget is way over the top. Many non-towered airports in California and across the nation are safely served daily by (gasp) scheduled airlines. Please don’t fall for the latest scare tactics employed by the air traffic controller’s union and the higher-tax crowd. – Jim Mallen, Lake San Marcos

Obama is shutting down air controllers at 149 airports, one of which is near my home. He is also giving $200 million in aid to Jordan. I would like to offer a suggestion, how about we cut his pay and eliminate his perks. We should also cut the pay and eliminate all the perks for the Senate and Congress. They don’t want to do anything for us so why should they get paid? I’m tired of going without when all they do is spend, spend, spend. – Heather D. Soto, San Ysidro

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